SbSteveZ

Whilst on a quick stop up to the park to enjoy the nice weather, I figured it would be nice to take some photos to share here! Nothing *too* exciting but still. You’re seeing this right, a FULL Boomerang train! And it was fairly consistent the entire time we were there! Probably nothing major but there is some work being done in the small field between Beaver Brothers, Boomerang and the Motocoaster plaza Never underestimate the power of an awesome sunset Here we see the “Mind Eraser Fan Club” - sure it wasn’t the worst version I’ve been on but it’s running worse than it has been in the past few seasons. 21 years old and not holding up well at all. This ride has come up a few times on this forum so I figured I’d take some pictures of it. Yes the roof that blew off is still gone. What surprised me was the fact that the ride’s sign is gone too. From the outside of the attraction only a couple Lighting segments were out, and they’re barely noticeable unless you’re looking for them More close up look at the outer segments Upon looking within the attraction - this is where we see the actual lighting that doesn’t work anymore. Though I’m not certain it “makes or breaks” the ride, I know people have some pretty strong opinions on the matter

This is the first time in a few years that they’ve done this. I’m not sure of the reason though. But while we’re on the topic of the Ferris Wheel, I find it funny that the Ferris wheel at Fantasy Island has lights on it while the one at Darien does not. It caught me by surprise driving home from Lewiston over the weekend for sure!

Something he did involving the poster at Cedar Point ^

This is probably a totally stupid thing to mention - considering I have no idea how well it’s working with guests in the park at all. But I’d assume with the new phone policy, they’re going to remove the Steel Vengeance AR boards? You know, those billboards throughout the queue that really only serve the purpose of being for Augmented Reality? They basically encourage cell phone usage in line, I can’t imagine they’d stay after this new rule has been put in place. Which to my understanding of the battle for Cedar Point app would mean that they should just remove “Team Steel Vengeance” altogether. Again - totally not super important but it is a small detail that I’m not sure anyone thought about

I wish I could find the video - but there is one circulating the interwebs that shows what I’m referring to with that 3-5 minute comment. Of course it’s probably far from exact but it was certainly longer than 10-20 seconds. The guy easily got 20-30 more rotations while the ride was holding for him to stop spinning, both in the video and when I caught him in person back in late June

I last rode it June 29th and was able to get into a sustained flip. Sadly the ops no longer count the rotations and the screen recorded flips was busted so I have no way of knowing how close to a personal best it was. Based solely on dizziness I think I did pretty well. I had a similar experience end of june. There was a decent wind and i flipped more than i ever have. I counted over 50 flips. When i went to check the screen it was blank. I asked the ride op and they said it was 47. I dont know if the screen is off to avoid encouraging people to flip more or if it is just not working. I dont know if the reduced flipping is for safety or overprecautious insurance reasons. Either way i an dissapointed. Not that I know anything about this issue but I know there’s a person who flips like mad and when the ride ends they have to wait easily 3-5 minutes for his specific seat to stop flipping so that they can safely lower the ride down to its final position. My understanding is this person does this whenever he rides the attraction and it then means that he dramatically decreases the rides capacity whenever he rides it. Ride Ops seem to be annoyed, guests on the ride seem to be annoyed, guests in line are certianly annoyed and it appears the only people enjoying it are the rider himself, and maybe a passer-by or two whom isn’t waiting to get on or off of the attraction. If I had to take a wild guess I’d say that this person that does not let go of the wings until he stops flipping could be a reason that they modified the ride to allow users to flip less. If that is the case it sucks that one guy ruined it for everyone else but it wouldn’t surprise me all too much at the same time. Just my two cents

^ I think my biggest peeve with the videos aside from the overly long introduction, has to be the “I know the info but I won’t tell you even though that’s the title of the video”. To me that screams click bait and because of that I’ve been hesitant to even attempt to watch the videos recently. The worst one was the blueprint one from off the top of my head. If you aren’t willing to share the information, especially if the park asked you not to, then don’t make a video on it and call it “CW BLUEPRINTS???”, you know? It’s misleading and in some cases it’s a cheap way to get viewers. I appreciate the content, and I don’t hate longer videos, but if the entire video on blueprints has almost nothing to do with blueprints, then why watch? You like to sspeculate as we all do, but if you could be more accurate with video titles and if you could try to refine your topics a little more so it’s not an anticlimactic 10 minute long video then I think the content would be much better. I don’t mean to be rude, I just hope to be offering some constructive criticism. I am admittedly a fan, and love the dedication you have put into this project!

Most of those expansions had a substantial part of the bill foot by "cheap" CNL. And glossing over the major expansion of the water park and Motocoaster cost a lot more than Blast Off and a few cheapie rides for Rowdy's Ridge. Even then Herschend with all of its own supposedly deep pockets saw a lot of coasters still running only one train. On another note, no Skywarp but there is a new ride coming. Talk is possibly a Star Flyer/Sky Screamer of some dimension. My main mention of Herschend was because of their attention to detail. Notice both areas they revamped were not just asphalt pads, and they added more character to areas of the park that I’d say now are still the more attractive parts of the park itself. They added a nice family area and a shot tower that this area is lacking with the one at Fantasy Island not existing anymore and the one at MarineLand almost not worth it due to the cost of the park and the lack of attractions. I understand that CNL footed the bill for Motocoaster and Splashtown - yet it seems when anyone complains about the condition of the park, CNL is almost always to blame. Even when hershend was in charge, people would say “if Hershend could just make the investments they wanted to Darien Lake would be so much better” or something along those lines. My personal opinion is that thus far I have enjoyed the Hershend era more than any of the post six flags eras in the park - as short lived as they may have been. Maybe new Six Flags can change that, maybe not. Either way I’m sure I’ll still visit next year, and I’ll still have fun - as I always do. It’s a nice park for what it is, I feel like bill is right in saying that people don’t appreciate it as much as they should

Is there something wrong with fans of a park being excited to see a major company step in? I can’t help but see most of these comments as more attacking than anything else. People have been dealing with CNL’s cheap operations for years and they’re finally excited to see the return of a company that at one point added a new large coaster year after year including the tallest roller coaster in New York State. Since six flags left the only major investments seen were that of the Hershend era (which was wonderful) and two small coasters - one of which - people have been complaining about since it opened for being too small. So of course there will be people happy to see a big company return. People are going to be excited to have fright fest back. People are gonna appreciate the return of Superman and the other super hero’s. Six Flags may not jump in and save the park and make it the next Magic Mountain but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be happy with the changes they might make. I hate seeing all that “I can’t wait to say I told you so” banter. It’s a discussion thread. Can we all just discuss the changes that MAY come instead of bash people with high hopes? /end rant

^ I think that may answer the question. Canada’s Wonderland is a park that’s known to get ridiculously busy. Perhaps now that we are reaching peak season, they increased the price so that less fast lane vouchers are given out yet they are still making about the same as if it were the off season with the cheaper prices. It would make sense to me. Kind of how the actual price for fast lane shifts based on the business of that day

Maybe it’s just me but I’m actually a big fan of that Tarnished Copper look. Valravn to me looks awesome especially with it’s near Midnight Blue supports, ya know, since Orange and Blue are complimentary. It works. As was probably the intention. A deeper more muted orange with a bold yet dark blue. It’s like how Busch Gardens Williamsburg “completed the color wheel” with Tempesto. They’ve got the Yellow and Purple compliment with Apollo’s Chariot and they complemented that with the bright orange and sky blue tempesto. I think the forest green and tarnished copper look is fairly unique and interesting for the park. They’ve got a pretty interesting spectrum of coaster colors. Blue and Yellow, all black, all gray, red and gray, gray and light gray, blue and white, sea foam green and blue - the list goes on and on. This coaster has a color scheme that isn’t too in your face but is still interesting enough to not be something along the lines of Viper at Darien Lake where the entire thing is black. Regardless of the color though, I don’t think anyone is gonna hold off on riding it because they don’t like what color it is. Still, I just wanted to play devils advocate for a minute and discuss the other side of the argument

Look back a few pages, but they did have a large group from SF corporate at the park asking lots of questions. Specifically, lots of questions on why the coasters all run only one train and why the giant wheel has no lights on it. My guess is that they either fix these things this year or in the offseason ^ to be totally honest - though I know it’s not the case. When I first saw that RoS was down for the count I for a split second thought that may be why. Lord knows I’m far from correct but a guy can dream, right?

Some super quick updates for the park, photos included of course! Ride of Steel, Pirate and Grizzly Bear Run were all closed today. RoS Plaza down for the count New “Thrill Pass” seems to be like a cheaper version of a Season Pass with less benefits. New in 2018 (?) Yay for the return of Fright Fest!

Fright Fest® will return to Darien Lake Theme Park Resort this fall, bringing Thrills by Day and Fright by Night to the park for five weekends beginning Sept. 28th. By day, families with young children can enjoy a trick-or-treat trail, along with other kid-friendly activities. But, at night the park transforms from a theme park to a scream park featuring: Zombies roaming around every corner; New scare zones and haunted mazes; Two new haunted houses (additional fee required); and A new laser light show, Spooktacular, performed on Friday and Saturday nights at 10:30 p.m. More details about Fright Fest will be announced in the coming weeks. Admission to the event is included with a 2018 season pass ^ from the website for those who just want to see the statement

^ Then do it. CAD drawings don’t have to be insanely complicated to be CAD drawings. The only real requirement is that it’s created within a CAD software. AutoCAD, Inventor, Vectorworks, SolidWorks etc. are all acceptable tools and I believe all of them have the ability to render solid shapes and add color. Not every CAD drawing needs to be wireframe with 7,000 constraints and dimensions plastered throughout. It was a reference image to show the track based on some measurements, and i don’t see why someone would lie about the type of drawing it was, so I’m unsure why you’re questioning that point specifically.

Make a right at Wende Correctional. Follow that and it turns into Sumner and goes to 77 right next to the entrance. Never has any traffic. I’ll have to try that next time I head over that way, I Never thought of that as an option

The Walden/Central area is a bit further out than where I am. Plus I don’t mind driving straight down Walden and turning onto the 77. Past Pavement there’s what, 3 traffic signals? Including the one for the 77 I believe. From time to time I may also take Broadway all the way down, it just depends on where I’m coming from. The Walden/Central area is typically 5-10 minutes from my place as it is so 20 minutes from there isn’t all that much faster - and I live off of Walden.

If it takes you 45 minutes to get to Darien from Depew, youre doing it wrong. Very, very wrong. And if it takes you an hour and a half to get to CW, youre speeding and not hitting any traffic. It does actually take 30 minutes almost exactly from my location to get to Darien Lake, but I added the extra 15 because almost always I’m picking up other people and usually start venturing to Darien Lake from farther east -making the travel time indeed about 45 minutes, thanks to the wonderful out of sync traffic lights in the area (I swear if it’s not Genesse, the lights are never in sync anywhere and that can add so much time to a commute). Also with Wonderland it does depend, last time I got there in an hour and 50 minutes due to fighting with the GPS to avoid the ETR/407 because it can get pricey if you aren’t subscribed to it (or however that service works) it initially said my time from home to Wonderland would be 2:00 hours, then it dropped to 1:15 after the border and by the time we got to the 407 situation it added 26 minutes to my travel time because it kept taking me to 407 entrances and I kept driving away from them. The time prior, traffic was almost non-existent so it did take about an hour and a half to get to the entrance right across from the 400. My favorite part of traveling there is watching the time drop by easily 30 minutes when I cross over the border in 5 minutes or less - yes, there are times when that is possible. It is worth noting; your mileage and results may vary, friends. An hour and a half is a lot more accurate than 4-6 hours. As is stating a Platinum Pass with season long FunPix is only $250 when you renew at the right time and that gives access to 11 parks instead of the one meh park a $70 or $80 season pass gets you at Darien Lake (or just add $20 per each six flags park to give the pass a little more value). There are people out there who would pay $500 or so for all the benefits at CW, but again, totally not required.

As a Wesern New Yorker whom has a season pass for Darien Lake as well as a Platinum Pass with all season FunPix I can say that I have been to wonderland more than Darien Lake this year so far. It’s not insanely far away. Darien is about 45 minutes away from me, and depending on the border I can get to Wonderland in about an hour and a half. The extra 45 minutes is incredibly worth it for a park with 16 coasters, a bunch of unique and fun flat rides, and a world class atmosphere curtosey of Cedar Fair. I paid for my platinum pass monthly from August to January so by the time the season began I didn’t even have to worry about admission prices anymore. Thanks to the current exchange rate as well as 15% off of purchases within CW, I don’t think for me a meal plan is all that worth it and I’m totally fine with the reduced cost for things at the park. I ate at the buffet it midevil faire for $15. I can’t complain for that price. Nor am I upset with a $6 bevertail. Canada’s Wonderland is far from what I’d consider expensive - I know of a certain World in Florida tan by a mouse that charges $900 Plus for their annual pass and that’s the baseline product they sell. I just spent well over $1,000 for a budget trip to WDW where as I spent less than $100 for gas, food and merchandise on my last two trips to Wonderland combined. For what it’s worth Darien Lake has become more of a “there’s nothing better to do so let’s go to the park” place for me and my family - and that’s totally fine. We still visit upwards of 10 times a year and as long as they have a laser show they’ve got me from whenever I arrive until the park closes. Cedar Point, though freaking awesome isn’t as easy to just get up and go to as DL and CW are for most people in WNY. Sure, for people with Platinum Passes it’s totally worth a drive a couple times a year, but it’s not (for most people) an easily accessible park. You’d be surprised how many people have the ability to cross the border nowadays especially in the Buffalo area. With it being so close a bunch of WNY folk travel up there all the time. My main point in this whole spiel is that CW isn’t as impossible or expensive as some may think. And though Darien Lake isn’t awful, and it has a lot going for it, I wouldn’t say that there’s no alternatives nearby that aren’t reasonable because depending on what you purchase, that’s just not the case. You don’t need a fully loaded pass to have fun at CW, or any park for that matter. It’s just a fun perk that people can have if they want it.

The interesting thing about that is the similarity of that ride and Rolling Thunder. Not that I would at all be against seeing that ride at Darien Lake, I just wonder how the two really compare to one another at the end of the day. Not that most anyone would care, but it is still an interesting thing to think about

This is probably the most out of the blue thing to be posted on this thread right now considering the many things that are likely much more important but for the past couple years - especially with the upgrade of the on-peninsula water park, I’ve been seriously wondering when Cedar Point will upgrade Castaway Bay - both the hotel and the water park itself. Breakers Express was just updated and renovated this past year and became the Cedar Point Express, Breakers has been renovated and expanded several times in the past 4 years, Sandcastle Suites is gone, and now it seems the only Cedar Point hotel to not get much of any attention is their Castaway Bay (sort of) year-round resort hotel and indoor water park. Since opening in 2004, it has seen one small renovation in 2011 adding new TVs into the fitness rooms, new carpeting and water park WiFi. Plus I’m sure they make other small tweaks every now and again - like the addition of the roller coaster prints in the rooms. It’s unfortunate but since visiting the resort at least once a year since 2013, it seems to be sitting in limbo, really aging, and not aging well. It would be nice to see some sort of additions or renovations to the water park itself considering near by parks of the same nature are updated more often, and it would be nice to have something else to do whilst there. It’s a great park for a brief stay as it currently stands, which is totally fine with the world class water park and theme park down the street, but when those are closed, I feel like CB needs something to keep it up to par with the nearby attractions of similar nature / end of totally unexpected Castaway Bay rant

Based on the little bit I saw when I was there it looks like the ride entrance area is going to be near Minebuster, so I wonder if the retheming of the pathways over near Flying Canoes and what not is really going to impact much. It seems as though this coaster is going to be moving across a couple different areas of the park, so though Cedar Fair isn’t usually one to care all too much about themeing, if they were going to base the attractions name off of where it exists in the park, it’s entrance would be in or very close to Action Zone where Behemoth resides so a less Canadiana theme may just make sense. Not saying Ziz is the answer but I feel like this one won’t be as cut and dry as some may currently think

It’s been about 5 days already and I tcould have been mentioned here before, but that path that was open behind Timberwolf has been closed once again, probably for good this time. (Until next year that is)

Twister is not SBNO. It was open last weekend and ran all day long (Sunday) it was also at certain points attracting fairly large crowds - more than the 3 or 4 people it usually runs cycles for which was nice to see

This past Saturday I decided last minute to take a trip up to Canada’s Premier Amusement Park, and I figured I’d share some of my experiences below! Leviathan is a wonderful coaster, tons of airtime, great views of Toronto (if you’re looking for it) and the front row with that first drop? Priceless! Behemoth is also super great with that airtime it provides, especially with its last couple speed bump camel back style hills just before the final brakes. Both of these are favorites of mine. The Fly - being that this was the first time I rode this one - was a much more fun than I was expetting. It was a happy surprise! Food service was fairly interesting. We stopped at the thrill burger near Wild Beast and to put it nicely it was a little messy and not organized in the slightest. The guy who was taking orders was supposed to take the names of everyone and only did it about 25% of the time. He took my name after about five minutes, and did not take my friends name so we ended up waiting much longer than we initially should have. The food was alright but I wasn’t super impressed. Thankfully with the exchange rate and the season pass discount it didn’t cost all that much so I wasn’t too disappointed. We later decided to get a beaver tail from the location near Slingshot and I was pleasantly surprised! Those things are awesome! Anybody know what “the Purple” drink actually is? It’s supposedly specific to CW. They only had the Woof Jocks dog show which to me was disappointing. I loved the dog show but I was hoping to see more. Even Starlight Reflecfions. I’m surprised they don’t play that on the weekends or something leading up to their daily run in late June. That seems like a relatively short run for a night time show when this park is open until 10 on Fridays and Saturdays currently. Perhaps that’s just my opinion because I Love night time shows but who knows Thankfully, there was some rain between about 6 and 7:30, and that scared a LARGE number of people away. It led to less than 20 minutes waits for most all rides until park close. It was a nice way to end our mini trip to the park. I’m looking forward to Celebration Canada in July, and will certainly be back. Thankfully with living just outside of Buffalo, the trip isn’t all that bad! Whatever is in store for 2019 is looking to be like an awesome attraction. It’s great to have so much speculation at a park so close to home! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Wonderland’s future! Finally, here’s some photos in no real particular order, nothing beats a CW sunset!